Today's pick: World in Action
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Your support makes all the difference.World in Action (8pm ITV) "Jam Today" is one of those in-car documentaries which seem to be fashionable nowadays, looking at traffic jams from the perspective of six drivers. It's a strange combination of tiresome vox-pops and worrying statistics, with its sexy (for World in Action, that is) Nineties presentation a cover for the fact that the programme contains neither a scandal nor a solution. The traffic reduction bill has its second reading in the Commons at the end of the month when issues such as road tolls and the pounds 1bn annual tax break for company-car drivers will be discussed. One contributor reveals that a radical scheme in Boston has dramatically reduced traffic - only cars containing three or more people can travel in the fast lane during the rush hour.
Ken Hom Travels With a Hot Wok (8.30pm BBC2) With the cuisine of the Pacific Rim currently in much better shape than the region's economy, it's a good time for a visit from the grinning super-chef. Sydney is the first stop on a six- city tour of East-West "fusion" cuisine - tomato soup with lemon grass and coconut milk for beginners, crackling rice-paper-wrapped fish for show-offs.
The film
The Jerk (9pm BBC2) Steve Martin was once considered by American audiences to hold the unofficial title of world's funniest man. British audiences have failed to embrace his manic humour with quite the same gusto - symptomatic, perhaps, of our distrust of extroverts. In his first film lead, he plays a manically energetic simpleton who heads for New York when he discovers that his black parents aren't his real mom and dad.
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